


Even In Sleep

by Lucy_Claire



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Armin is a magnet for trouble, M/M, Prompt Fill, Titan! Eren - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 17:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6160882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy_Claire/pseuds/Lucy_Claire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things goes awry when Eren gets knocked out before he can shift. Knowing he's the only one who wake Eren, Armin tries to reach him before the Titans and ends up getting grabbed by one instead.<br/>Titan Eren is not happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even In Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: “Do you ever think we should just stop?" With a mix of "you know, it's okay to cry" requested by Tumblr user anxmxgxxk

It was supposed to be a basic reconnaissance mission for new Team Levi, basically an exercise in them handling things by themselves incase something happened to Hange and Levi. Armin was in the middle, guarded by Sasha and Connie, yelling out orders from his plan, Mikasa and Jean in the trees, ready to jump down and attack, and Eren at the very front, hand half-raised to his mouth, waiting.

It was all meant to go to plan with the advancing titans when an Abnormal crashed the scene, hugging Jean’s tree with a slam, knocking him off his branch, and distracting Mikasa from the ten-meter titan that tried stomping on Eren’s horse. Eren jerked his horse out of the way so fast it bucked him off and into Mikasa’s tree. Connie shot off his horse and went straight for the titan. Jean shot his hooks mid-fall and yanked himself back up to his branch before launching at the Abnormal, killing it with one slash to the nape. Mikasa used Connie’s titan as a Launchpad as she jumped from her tree to its shoulder and then to the one behind it, cutting it down.

Armin stood, pressing his feet into the stirrups of his saddle to get a good look at Eren. Eren was effectively knocked out and so was his horse. Armin had to get to him.

Sasha tried to yank Armin back by his hood. “Whoa, where do you think you’re going?”

“Eren needs to wake up, Mikasa can’t handle all of these.”

“Jean, Connie and I are here too, you know.”

Armin tried to pass her, but Sasha just got in his way, defiant. “Armin, no offence, but if you charge out there you’ll get eaten.”

“But Eren!”

“I’ll go wake him.”

“If you go then who’s watching me?”

Sasha opened her mouth to object then shut it. “Wow, I didn’t think that through.”

“How about you stay behind me and distract anything that comes near me?”

“I don’t know, Armin…”

Armin checked back on Eren, he still wasn’t moving and he wasn’t healing either judging the lack of steam and the blood drenching the back of his head and the bottom of the tree. “He needs me to wake him up, Sasha.”

“No, he doesn’t. Mikasa can come back for him.”

“You don’t get it, it’s just like what happened at Trost! I’m the only one that can get to him!” Armin shouted at her.

“Why?” Sasha shouted back.

Armin felt skin getting too hot under his cloak. “Because…because…”

Sasha’s huge eyes watched him expectantly, he could practically see the ellipsis and question mark above her head.

“Because, okay? I’m our only chance at helping things.”

“Jean can do it, it doesn’t have to be you.”

“Have I ever been wrong before?” Armin asked her, bordering on yelling. “Trust me!”

Sasha checked behind them and bit her lower lip. “Alright, go, go!”

Armin kicked his horse’s sides with his heels and tried to dodge the swooping hand of a titan. Sasha swiped her sword at it, cutting off its fingers while Armin ducked out from between its legs, rushing to Eren.

The number of titans increased, coming in twos or threes after the ones Mikasa killed hit the ground. Armin avoided another two thanks to Sasha and reached Eren while his horse was leaping over a log. Armin hopped off the horse mid-leap and landed near Eren with a shout. “WAKE UP!”

Eren didn’t move, he didn’t even blink, he just stared dully at his feet, the blood that bled from the back of his head now travelling lower and starting to drip from his hairline. Armin tapped his face and pinched his skin. “Eren!”

A titan smacked Connie off his arm like he was a bug, knocking him into Sasha as she was heading towards them, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Mikasa was far out of his sight and Jean had gone back to keep the twelve-meter titan occupied while the one that incapacitated Connie made its way over to Eren.

Feeling desperate, Armin broke one of Eren’s fingers but it still did nothing. The titan reached out, Armin pulled out his sword to hit it but it grabbed him so fast the sword went right through its hand painlessly.

Time seemed to slow down as it brought Armin close to its toothy cavern of a mouth, the heat of its breath making Armin sweat faster as he kicked and screamed pointlessly.

Armin’s head was about to enter its mouth when a large fist slammed into its face, knocking it back and letting Armin fall into another giant hand, Eren’s.

Pointy-eared, lip-less and crazy-eyed, titan Eren raised Armin to his face and sniffed him. Half-relieved and half-shaken, Armin reached out and touched the tip of the titan’s nose. “Eren?”

Eren put Armin on his shoulder, Armin held onto his hair as Eren continued beating the titan that attempted to eat Armin until its head flew off.

Connie and Sasha were back in the air, taking down whichever they could reach while Jean finally cut down his fifteen-meter titan and joined them in the middle. By the time Mikasa returned from deep into the woods, all that was left was a pile of steaming bodies.

“That could have gone better,” said Connie, shaking the blood off his blades.

“It could have also gone worse,” said Mikasa, looking to Armin. “What happened?”

“I don’t know? He hit his head and became unresponsive until…” Armin held onto a log of hair and dangled off the edge of Eren’s shoulder, looking him in the eye. “…I guess he sensed I was in danger.”

Titan Eren’s third lid came out as he blinked, as close as a confirmation as he’d ever get from something unable to speak.

“We should head back,” Mikasa announced. “Do you want your horse or…?”

Armin sat on Eren’s shoulder, feeling safe. “I’m good.”

They reached their castle in the woods by nighttime. Armin slid down to the top of Eren’s back and cut him out of the titan body. Once his eyes became focused, he breathed Armin’s name in a sigh of relief. Overwhelmed, Armin finally released the tension that’s been holding his body upright all day and a few tears of worry and frustration burned at his eyes.

Armin furiously wiped his face. Eren reached up a hand wipe a tear from his cheek, blocking Armin’s hand. “Are you crying?”

“No.”

“It’s okay to cry, you know,” Eren said airily, like it was too much effort to talk.

Armin moved Eren’s head into his lap. “I know it is, I just don’t know why I am right now. We’re fine, no one died.”

“You almost did, that disgusting brainless freak almost ate you,” Eren growled lightly, the vicious bite to his passionate anger starting to fill his eyes and voice. “It wouldn’t have happened if I changed sooner.”

“It’s not your fault, I put myself in danger to try to wake you.”

“That wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t pass out to begin with.”

Armin softly stroked Eren’s cheek with his knuckle. “We can stay here all night passing the blame back and forth, it doesn’t change that we’re okay now.”

“We’re going to have to do this again and again until my reaction time is better,” Eren reminded. “I can’t risk this happening to you again, twice was enough.”

“You ever think we should stop doing this?” Armin wondered. “That we should just take off in the night and go on that trip we always talked about, to a beach to see the ocean?”

“I do, but I can’t, you can’t,” Eren’s tone became a bit somber. “Humanity needs us, and I don’t think I could rest until every one of those titans is gone.”

“Excluding you,” Armin added, joking slightly.

Eren turned his head so his cheek pressed into Armin’s palm. “Trust me, you won’t be getting rid of me any time soon, even with my lousy reaction time I’ll still save you.”

“To be fair, your reaction time was excellent, I barely felt you shifting, especially since you were pretty much catatonic until it grabbed me,” Amin told him, his voice cracking a bit. “Hey, what motivated you to snap out of it and shift so fast?”

“You know why.” Eren leant up on his elbows, head bent back to look Armin in the eye. “Even in sleep I know better than to let you out of my sight, you’re a magnet for trouble.”

Huffing out a tired laugh, Armin took hold of Eren’s face and bent his head back enough to kiss him. “Good to know.”

**Author's Note:**

> I take prompts and requests on my [**Tumblr**](http://lucyclairedelune.tumblr.com)!
> 
> Don't forget to comment! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧


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